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Take Action to Save NYC’s Canada Geese

June 20, 2013 | Geese / Take Action

Call Mayor Bloomberg's office at 212.788.3000 and demand an end to the slaughter of Canada geese in parks that began Tuesday, June 19th. Families of geese and newly born goslings are being seized from parks; including the goose family pictured at Inwood Hill Park just a week before USDA agents rounded them up for gas chambers.

As NYC Goose Slaughter Begins, Friends of Animals Strikes Back at Mayor Bloomberg

New York City—Friends of Animals, an animal advocacy organization with tens of thousands of New York members, calls Mayor Bloomberg’s approved slaughter of Canada geese and goslings reprehensible after USDA Wildlife Service agents entered Inwood Hill Park and Hudson River Park yesterday to exterminate geese.

“How can Mayor Bloomberg justify another tax-funded slaughter of thousands of beautiful geese with newly hatched goslings – rounding them up, stuffing them in crates, and loading them onto trucks to be sent to gas chambers, Edita Birnkrant, NY Director of Friends of Animals asks. Under the guise of making air travel safer, USDA agents seized a dozen geese and goslings from Inwood Hill Park yesterday, while an unknown number were also taken yesterday from Hudson River Park. (Photos of roundups and of the family of geese rounded up at Inwood Hill Park available to media by request.)

“Ironically,” Birnkrant adds, “New York City creates situations that attract birds to airports. Both Mayor Bloomberg and the FAA approved the creation of a massive garbage transfer site to be built next to runways at LaGuardia Airport, a dangerous, irresponsible move that will attract birds to those areas. How can such stupidity be tolerated while a handful of resident geese in a massive park like Inwood Hill Park are condemned for visiting park lands, asks Edita Birnkrant.”

"Air safety will only be improved by deterring geese and other birds from airports through habitat modification, effective land-use planning and radar detection, not by killing Canada geese or other birds such as swans that planes share the skies with," Birnkrant says.

The separation and destruction of geese in one area where they congregate encourages other geese to occupy the temporary vacuum, and these new geese and goslings are then routinely killed the following year by Wildlife Services agents. “It’s a cycle of myopic violence that Friends of Animals opposes,” Birnkrant says.

"Simple solutions that we've educated the Mayor's office about, such as allowing grass around runways and airport property to grow several inches higher instead of mowing it can keep away flocks of geese and other birds that are otherwise drawn to the short, mowed lawns," Birnkrant adds. Friends of Animals produces a Canada Goose Habitat Modification Guide, written by a renowned ornithologist which details successful habitat and landscape strategies in parks to better co-exist with the neighboring geese.

“It’s pitiful that Mayor Bloomberg has a tin ear to protecting geese and other wildlife in city parks,” Birnkrant says. “Friends of Animals’ office phone rings off the hook every time this wildlife assault begins—so many New York City supporters are outraged by Mayor Bloomberg’s goose-killing politic. Clearly, a change of mayors is needed.”

There’s plenty of room in this massive city for Canada geese and their babies to live in peace, and we restate our demand that Mayor Bloomberg stop the slaughter of New York City's Canada geese, immediately, Friends of Animals says.

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Comments

I live in Oakland, CA and we have these same geese at various times of the year. We do not try to drive them out of our community though and we certainly don't KILL them! We welcome them and respect the fact that they migrated through these parts before we arrived here. It's amazing to me how other parts of the world treat the same type of animal. Please utilize the other measures of a peaceful cohabitation that animal advocates have offered you. There is a way to find balance without causing death. Thank you.

When it comes to animals 20x over billionaire bloomberg could care less: the horse drawn carriages bloomberg wants to keep the tradition and now the geese. this guy needs a lesson in compassion and mercy for the creatures

I called the Mayor's Office and politely asked them to please stop killing the geese. The person who answered the phone was rude and offensive and then hung up on me! My entire family dedicated their lives in service to this nation. Retired now, I live in Inwood and enjoy visiting the geese and their little families as often as I can. If you can judge a nation by how it treats its animals...then this nation is doomed because of its hardness of heart!

Shame on the whole of the human race who so callously murders other animal species. Shame on all of us whose people have endured "gassing" and slaughter themselves to inflict this same horrific killing on other animal species. As human animals still do to each other.
"There will never be any peace in the world as long as we eat animals." Isaac Beashevis Singer